Band Photography: tips for taking promo shots that rock

Shooting promotional band photography can be both an excellent way to hone your portrait photography skills as well as supplement your income on the side. Our in-depth tutorial below explains some essential portrait photography tips for capturing dramatic band promo shots, as well as advice on how much to charge for your efforts.

Music groups always need up-to-date images of their line-up for their promotional material, whether that’s a CD cover or a flyer for a forthcoming gig. In fact, band photography can be a really good way to fill your portfolio with loads of dramatic, fun pictures.

The trick to good band photography is to try to create an original shot – not easy when you consider all the iconic images of groups that already exist. Band promo shots also need to complement the group and have to be exciting, vibrant and look professional.

Finding bands to photograph
So where do you start? First, you need to get your name and good reputation known with local bands.

One of the best ways of finding groups in your area willing to book you for their band photography is to do a search on MySpace (typing in ‘Nottingham bands’ for example). You’ll often find there’s a network with other bands on the site, so your search time can be reduced.

Approaching nearby clubs can provide further leads, but they often don’t concentrate on local talent, hosting tours by visiting groups instead.